Saint Robert Bellarmine
is one of the great figures in the era of the Counter- Reformation
or
the
Catholic
Reformation. A member of the Roman Curia for most of his active life
and a Cardinal of the church, he was not raised to the altars of the
Church until 1930. We will try to understand this a little better when
we know something more of this kind, generous and brilliant man who
blessed the world of his time with his holiness.

The 16th century
was one of the most difficult in the history of the Church. The attacks
on the Church by the original "Reformers" caused tremendous
losses to the Church in numbers, property, power and prestige. Whole
nations abandoned "mother Church", rejected doctrine after
doctrine, denied the validity of the sacramental system and eliminated
the central worship of the Church, the Mass. The rejection of the authority
of the Church, the personal interpretation of Scripture, the importance
of tradition endangered the entire future of Christianity. If the Church
had not responded, it would have been destroyed. But respond it did!
Some historians use the terms "Counter-Reformation" and "Catholic
Reformation" to describe how the Church fought back.

The Church went
into council - the famous Council of Trent - to revitalize the practice
and truth of the faith. The Reformers had not been entirely wrong in
their criticism. There was much wrong with the Church, especially in
its practice. The challenge was to restore the Church to its original
purity, especially in the life of the spirit and the people of God.
It is the view of the Church today that the Providence of God sent
to the Church at that time a man named Robert Bellarmine, who would
be a key leader in defending the Church and moving it forward to better
days.

Robert Francis Romulus Bellarmine (Bellarmino) was born in 1542 at Montepulciano in
Tuscany. His father was Vincent Bellarmino, a member of a noble family,
but one that had fallen on hard times. The family was not at all wealthy
or powerful His mother, on the other hand, Cynthia Cervini, was the
half-sister of Cardinal Marcello Cervini, one of the outstanding leaders
of the Counter-Reformation Church, who would be elected Pope Marcellus
II in 1555. Unfortunately, Pope Marcellus II reigned for only one month
before his death. However, a grateful Church would advance the nephew
as he sought the priesthood. These were the early days of the existence
of the Jesuit order. St. Ignatius Loyola recognized the need for a
strong educational system within the Church to defend it against Protestantism
and to clarify the teaching of the apostolic Church. The Jesuits made
this their major work when to the present day.

There
was a Jesuit college in Montepulciano. The young Bellarmine, a very
small, frail
but lively fellow excelled in his studies, especially Latin and Italian
poetry. It didnt take long for it to become obvious that he wished
to join the Society of Jesus. The rector of the college described him
as "the best of our school and not far from he kingdom of heaven".
In 1559, Bellarmines father, who wanted him to be a medical doctor,
agreed that he could spend a year at home pondering his vocation. In
1560, at the age of 18, Robert Bellarmine applied for admittance to
the Society of Jesus. He was sent to Rome to pursue his novitiate,
even given credit for the year he had spent at home (its nice
to be a relative of a Pope!). At the same
time, Bellarmine was enrolled in the "Roman College" of the
Jesuits (in modern times known as the Gregorian University) to study
Philosophy.

Bellarmine
would be plagued throughout his life with ill health. When he completed
his
philosophical training, he was sent to Florence in his native Tuscany
to rest and to teach at the Jesuit college there  Rhetoric and
Latin poetry. As is so characteristic of the Jesuits, the assignment
only lasted one year and he was sent to Mondovi in Piedmont. There
he discovered that he was expected to teach Cicero and Demosthenes.
The problem was, he knew no Greek! It is told that he burned the midnight
oil staying one lesson ahead of his students! It was at Mondovi that
Bellarmine began to preach. He was so small that he had to stand on
a stool in the pulpit. His ethereal looks made him very popular as
the "boy preacher".

Crowds came to
hear him. At the college, Bellarmine showed great courage by objecting
to the practice of flogging unprepared students, something that was
common at that time. The story is told that the Jesuit Provincial went
to hear Bellarmine and was so impressed that he transferred Robert
to Padua to complete his studies for ordination and to preach to the
college community there. Again, this was not to last. The Superior
General of the Jesuits, Francis Borgia (now St. Francis Borgia) sent
Bellarmine to the great Catholic University at Louvain Belgium. Reformation
theology had permeated the University and Borgia recognized the brilliance
of Robert Bellarmine to counteract this trend. Robert lectured preached
and studied for the next seven years. In 1570, Bellarmine was ordained
to the priesthood and appointed to a professorship at Louvain, the
first Jesuit to hold such a post. For six years he lectured on the
Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, preached regularly and taught
himself Hebrew. He wrote a Hebrew grammar text to help his students,
which became very popular.

All
this was too much and Bellarmine suffered a serious breakdown. He was
recalled to
Rome although St. Charles Borromeo tried to lure him to Milan. In Rome,
Bellarmine received the key appointment of his life  to the "Chair
of Controversial Theology" at the Roman College. Its purpose was
apologetical: to defend the church against the attacks of Reformers.
Bellarmine would hold this post for 11 years, until 1587. It was during
this time that he wrote his classic work, " Disputations on the
Controversies of the Christian Faith", in four large volumes.
To this day, it is considered one of the most important texts of Catholic
theology ever written. Three hundred years after its publication, it
was called "the most complete defense of the Catholic teaching".

The
disputations were rewritten to defend the church against " The Centuries of
Magdeburg", a Protestant series which purported to prove that
Protestantism represented the church of the apostles in all Christian
centuries. In such a period of controversy, tempers were always high
and personal attacks were constant. Bellarmines work was known
for the kindness and respect he gave the Reformers. The result of this
was that the "Disputations" became the basic text for all
controversies used by Catholic and Protestant leaders alike. Bellarmines
work received the greatest compliment of being banned in England! One
English bookseller of the day said: " I have made more money out
of this Jesuit than out of all the other divines put together.

Bellarmines
success was so great that he became one of the most powerful men in
the Church. He was sent on many papal delegations even suffering the
siege of Paris in 1589. When he returned to Rome, Pope Clement VIII
gave him an enormous task. The Council of Trent felt that the " private
interpretation of Scripture" proposed by the Reformers was very
dangerous for doctrinal purity. It suggested that the Pope take the
responsibility for preparing an official version of the Bible so that
a consistent text would be available to all scholars. Sixtus V, unfortunately,
decided to prepare the text himself. Unfortunately, his text was found
to be inaccurate and unusable. The Church had used St. Jeromes
Latin text of the Bible, " The Latin Vulgate" edition of
the Bible for centuries. It was time to apply the advances in Scriptural
understand to a new official text. After the death of Sixtus V, Clement
VIII turned to Robert Bellarmine for an up-to-date official text of
the Vulgate, which is still in use today.

It
is only in the last few years that work has begun on a modern text
of the Vulgate.
Robert Bellarmines "Preface" is still in use today.
The significance of this is great. For centuries, all translations
of the Bible into the vernacular were done from the Vulgate text (e.g.
Douai Bible; Confraternity of Christian Doctrine Bible). Today, many
new translations are based on the original languages: Hebrew, Greek
and Aramaic. These translations are one level closer to the original
texts than the Latin Bible. However, Bellarmine still makes his contribution.

During
these years, St. Roberts reputation continued to grow. He continues to be
one of the most powerful men in the Church, yet insisted on living
the life of a simple priest. He lived in the Jesuit community at the
Roman College where he became the Spiritual Director. It was here that
he met and directed the young Aloysius Gonzaga. He was present at Aloysius deathbed.
So deeply attached was he to the future patron saint of youth, he called
him "my dear ghostly child" and directed in his will that
he be buried at the feet of the young saint. The story is told that
Saint Robert reveled in the living community life. He washed the dishes
after every evening meal! Soon Robert was mad e rector of the Roman
College.

Later,
after a short term as Jesuit provincial in Naples, he was called back
to Rome
to become the personal theologian of Clement VIII. The Pope commissioned
him to write two catechisms of Catholic doctrine. Luther had invented
the Catechism style to propagate Protestant theology. The history of
Bellarmines catechism is nothing less than incredible. The first
was the instruction manual used by Jesuit missionaries all over the
world. It was translated into sixty-two languages. Only the Bible itself
and the famous " Imitation of Christ" surpass this record.
The second catechism was used ion most of the diocese of Italy until
the publication of the new master catechism of the Church only in the
early 1990s.

In
1598, Bellarmine was stunned to be named a cardinal by Clement VIII.
Jesuits are
not supposed to receive honors from the Church by their Constitution,
but the pope declared: "He was not his equal for learning".
Cardinals who are full-time members of the Roman Curia, the top administrative
body of the Church, live in apartments in the Vatican itself. The are
supported by benefices so that they can keep up an office and staff.
This was against the religious vow of poverty! Bellarmine continued
his usual austere life. He ate the food of the poor- bread and garlic.
He did not heat his apartment in winter and gave most of his income
to the poor. He even distributed the wall hangings of his rooms to
the poor for clothing with the very wry comment: "The walls wont
catch cold".

Much to the amazement
of all, at the height of his career, at the age of 60, Pope Clement
VIII appointed Robert Bellarmine the archbishop of Capua. Bellarmine
had never been in pastoral ministry. Never the less, he began a new
dimension of his priesthood with his usual enthusiasm. He would spend
the next three years introducing the reforms of the Council of Trent
in his archdiocese. He traveled everywhere, preaching to the people.
He visited his clergy as well as religious men and women to encourage
them to renew the Church. He won the love of everyone.

But,
it was not to last. In 1605, Paul V was elected pope and immediately
called Bellarmine
back to Rome. He would not leave again. He became the head of the Vatican
Library, one of the great sources of the world. He was appointed a
member of the most congregations of the Curia. He would continue to
write in defense of the Church, but the tone of his works would not
have the same bite of controversy. One of his subjects was the power
of the papacy, especially in relation to the civil power of kings.
Bellarmine wrote two pamphlets against the views of King James of England
regarding the "divine right of kings", the power to control
the Church in their countries, the first a spoof of James poor
Latin, the second a devastating destruction of his arguments. Bellarmines "De
Potestate Papae" (The Power of the Pope), was burned publicly
by the Parliament of Paris!

Robert
Bellarmine was the " point man" in the famous controversy between the
Church and Galileo. Actually, the two men were close friends. Galileo
dedicated one of his books to Bellarmine. Bellarmine was able, then,
to approach Galileo on a very personal basis. However, so tension filled
was the issue that the friends could not resolve it. The controversy
was to become one of the most important in history: the relationship
between Science and Theology, the relative importance of human observation
and revealed truth. Galileo was one of the first users of the telescope.
His measurements led to the proposal of the Heliocentric Theory  that
the sun was central to our world that the earth moved around the sun
and not the sun around the earth. Yet, the Scriptures talk of the movement
of the sun. In Joshua 10, 12, Joshua, the Israelite general, is pursuing
an enemy force in retreat. He prayed that God would stay the movement
of the sun: " Stand still, O Sun". Also, Christian theology
that always taught that the earth was central to our world (Geocentric
Theory) because it was home to the most important creation of God,
the human race. Now, this doctrine was being threatened.

Galileo
represented the beginning of modern science; Bellarmine the truth of
scripture
as literally interpreted. The Galileo Controversy has been used for
centuries to suggest a fundamental conflict between science and faith.
In recent years, correspondence and documents have been discovered
which throw new light on the details of the controversy. Bellarmine
urged Galileo to be patient. He was confident that apparent conflicts
would be resolved by even better understanding of truth. Galileo, unfortunately,
refused to wait. He published his theory and was dismissed from his
teaching position. He was even subjected to house arrest. Today we
understand that Galileos contribution was not just a fact of
the natural world but a major sign that the Scriptures cannot be interpreted
literally.

The
Later Years

Robert
Bellarmine died at Rome in 1621 at the age of 79. If his early career
featured
brilliant polemics and his middle years gentle, loving, pastoral life,
his final years brought him transcendent peace. His writings turned
spiritual. He wrote several works, the classics being "The Ascent
of the Mind to God" and "The Art of Dying". He wrote
that this was his way of preparing for death and to move closer to
his God.

Why
So Long?

It
seems incomprehensible that the consummate renaissance man would have
to wait until 1930 to
be elevated to the altars of the Church  300 years for a man
of his achievement and holiness. The answer probably lies in the title
of his greatest work  "Controversies". People who are
active in controversies become controversial themselves. The church
has its priorities and thinks far ahead. It was not interested in offending
Protestantism by recalling the conflicts of the past or Modern Science
which it wished to encourage and embrace. By 1930, these considerations
were no longer imperative. The church was able to say that it had a
new saint, a new doctor of the church and a patron for religious education.